Failure: It’s a set up… and YOU are the prime suspect. Are you one of those people who sits back in frustration and envy while you watch your friends and acquaintances conquer obstacles and reach success repeatedly? You can too, but first, it’s wise to drop any of these habits you might have.
1. Not practicing what you preach
Have you ever heard this saying? It’s something society demands, so you need to demand it from yourself. Everything begins and ends with the brain-heart connection. If you have thoughts that are negative, you’re likely to practice negative actions. It is imperative you reverse any and all negative thinking. Become your biggest cheerleader and replace negative thoughts with positive ones. “I can do this!” Think positively so your conscious mind practices what your subconscious preaches.
2. Lack of mental skills
Mental skills encompass self-discipline, confidence, ambition, productivity and positive core beliefs.They affect your attention span, memory, comprehension, processing skills, logic and reasoning. Having strongly developed mental skills enables you to get through any situation without feeling like a failure.
3. I’ll try this for a while, but if it doesn’t work, I’m moving on!
What motivates and excites you? If your heart is not in something, you cannot do it. Find your passion and purpose in life and go after it. Until you do, you’ll find yourself being unable to commit and bounce from one job, or business venture to another… ultimately making you feel like you’re a failure.
4. False sense of entitlement
“Well the government, my parents, etc. owe me.” Nobody owes you anything. Success comes from hard work and belief in the self, not from a gift horse or rich relative. The fact is, yes, you deserve to be a success, but you also deserve the opportunity to prove to YOURSELF you can do it without relying upon others. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs supports this concept. Providing for your basic needs YOURSELF is the foundation for success.
5. Mind reading/assumptions
Assuming what others are thinking is a side effect of negative core beliefs. It’s also a sign of envy. The quickest remedy for this is to reverse the negative core beliefs that play like a repeating tape recorder in your mind. Mind reading, in time, leads to frequent bad moods, false perceptions/assumptions and blocks out potential relationships and learning opportunities which could lead you to success.
6. Not willing to take risks
Calculated risks are risks that carry reward without devastating risks. Successful people take risks every single day and so should you. It’s a fact risk comes with reward. The two go hand in hand. Fear of failure leads you to hide behind the unwillingness to take risks. So, basically what you’re doing is blocking out the chances of reward thereby setting yourself up for failure.
7. Impatience – immediate gratification
There is a saying my mom used to tell me when I was little. “All good things come to those who exercise patience.” It frustrated me then, and it still does now. However, it is true. If this saying annoys you like it does me, then think ‘baby steps’ instead. Each day, take one tiny step toward that goal, passion, degree, etc. If you become impatient, focus on the next step and tune out the big picture.
8. You keep doing what you’re doing and you keep getting what you’re getting!
This is a simple concept yet so hard to break. Think of it this way, if you keep beating your head against a brick wall, you will keep getting the same result – a bruised head. Eventually, you will fall to the ground either out of exhaustion, or because you’ve knocked yourself out. Either way, you fail. So STOP doing it and find another approach.
9. Ego/fear of failure
If you set out to accomplish something and you don’t, what’s the absolute worst that can happen? You fail? Think about Einstein, politicians, athletes. They failed over and over before they accomplished anything great. For many, it takes multiple failures in order to reach success. The only true failure is giving up on your passion.
10. Lack of persistence
A lack of persistence arises out of running out of steam. In other words, it’s mental exhaustion. You’ve worked so hard and feel like there’s nothing left inside of you to put any more into your project. So you slack off, and quit. Countless victories are abandoned before reaching a breakthrough, or having success because you run out of steam at the most crucial point. Usually, when you’re at this mental point of exhaustion, this point is just before success. But you never know because you walk away. It’s imperative to have strongly developed core beliefs and mental skills in order to succeed.
Mental strength is at the center of every failure. It’s imperative to keep the brain and heart aligned in thoughts and actions. If you practice any of these habits, make a conscious decision right now to drop them. You will find with each one you drop, your failures either fall by the wayside, or lead you to success. Failure is definitely a set up. And YOU are the prime suspect. Now go out, drop these habits and conquer your passions!
Learn more about why failure isn’t fatal.
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